MaineCat is a consortium similar to MINERVA. The libraries in the MaineCat system are mostly academic and larger public libraries in Maine.

If you can't find an item in the MINERVA system, you can search and request items from the MaineCat system. Access to MaineCat is available from the MINERVA catalog search screen. You can find the MaineCat button beneath the search box.

Search the Minerva system first, if you do not find the item you are looking for, then search MaineCat.

If no copies are available through Minerva, click the "MaineCat" or "Maine Info Net" Button on your local catalog screen. This will rerun the current search in MaineCat. If you find nothing, select a different search mode and try again.

The following modes of searching are possible in MaineCat:

Author: Type last name first for personal names; enter corporate or organization names as written.Title: Enter title words in correct order; the first few words are often enough. You may see a variety of editions.Subject: Enter a word or phrase from the controlled vocabulary of Library of Congress Subject Headings.Keyword: Enter a word(s) that you would like to be in the title, author, notes, subject headings, etc. Both simple and advanced modes are available. Number: Enter a number: Library of Congress call number, Dewey Decimal call number, Government Documents number, ISSN or ISBN, or National Library of Medicine number.Author/Title: For a more exact search combine last name of the author with the first few words of the title.

Searching Tips

Searching is not case sensitive.

It is not necessary to use capital letters when typing search terms.

Do not include articles at the beginning of a title search. For example, when searching for a book titled The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, enter the title in the following form: decline and fall of the roman empire

Keyword searches may be limited at the beginning of a search by language, location of library and year of publication. Searchers can display results by date published, relevance or alphabetical order.

Requesting items from MaineCat is very similar to requesting from MINERVA.

Once you have found the correct item, click on the title to display the full record.

In the middle of the screen look for the Display Holdings button.

Clicking on this will tell you if the item is available and where it is located.